I recently made homemade Strawberry Jam and it was much easier than I thought it would be. Now I am excited to try making other flavors of jam as well. I had known that jam recipes usually have Pectin as an ingredient and since I have no idea what is, I decided to find a recipe without Pectin. I truly am a problem solver. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
I ordered and washed some 8 oz. mason jars. Try not to touch the inside of the jars or the lids once they are clean so that bacteria doesn’t grow in the jars. This recipe made 4 1/2 – 8oz. jars.
The jars need to be hot when you put the jam into them, and to do this I put them in a 225 degree oven while I was making the jam. I kept checking them to make sure they didn’t get too hot.
Now let’s make the jam! You will need a heavy saucepan for this.
Ingredients:
2 lbs. of fresh strawberries
4 cups of sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
Clean the strawberries, cut off the tops, and slice them in half.
Mash the strawberries in a mixing bowl in batches. Once a batch was complete I put it in the saucepan.
Once all of the strawberries are mashed and in the saucepan add the sugar and lemon juice and bring to a rolling boil while stirring frequently.
The jam needs to boil to 220 degrees which is above boiling point. You will notice that it plateaus for a little while because of this, but you need to be patient and wait until it hits that temperature.
I was actually getting a little impatient myself, but you will see how the mixture changes once it hits that temperature.
Once the jam reaches 220 degrees remove it from the heat and start ladling it into the hot jars with a funnel leaving about 1/2 inch of space in the jars.
Once they are filled, seal the jars tightly while still trying not to touch the inside of the lids or jars. And that’s it!
If you are planning on eating the jam soon all you need to do is refrigerate the jam.
If you are planning on saving the jam you need to complete the next step of using a water bath.
If you have never done this it is easy. Bring a large pot of water to a boil making sure that there is enough water for the jars to be submerged. Make sure the jars are sealed tightly and use tongs to lower the jars into the water.
Let them sit in the boiling water for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and keep them in the water for another 5 minutes. Remove with tongs and set on a towel and leave undisturbed for 12-24 hours.